Poem: Changes 54/Marrying Maiden

1

Thunder over the lake—
We understand the transitory

All too well

In light of the eternity of the end
Thunder stirs the lake's water
Which follows it in shimmering waves

Like a woman tracks her man
If we drift along we come together

And part as the day determines

2

A husband and wife can work together

Like a pair of eyes
But the one-eyed man is able to see

3
The woman holds the basket but there is no fruit
The man stabs the sheep but no blood flows
The sacrifice to ancestors and harvest offerings

Are superficial
The woman holds the empty basket
The man stabs a slaughtered sheep—

Just to preserve the forms
A soulless cleaving to the rules
In a marriage built on sand.

---o0o---

Poem: Changes 53/Gradual Progress

The path rises high
Toward heaven
Like the flight of wild geese

Leaving
Earth
Behind.
---o0o---

Poem: Changes 34/ The Power of the Great

1
A goat butts against a hedge
It cannot go backward
It cannot go forward

2
You can give up
Your stubborn ways
And not live to regret it

When your inner worth rises
And comes to power
Its strength passes the median

That deadly middle point where
You rely on your head of steam
Asking what's next instead of what's right

3
The gates of success begin to open
Resistance falters
And you forge ahead

If you perservere chiseling away
At the resistance
The obstructions fall into pieces

4
Your power may not show
Like a prairie schoover

Whose strength lies in its axle

Your tenuous hold on earth

Is disguised by a long shadow

When you are tethered

To the ground

By the soles of your feet
And a theory of gravity.

---o0o---